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Kola nuclear power station, Russia. Computers and operating controls in the control centre for the Kola nuclear power station in northern Russia. Nuclear power stations produce energy from the fission of the nuclei of heavy elements like uranium and plutonium. This provides large amounts of energy from small amounts of fuel, more so than any other form of energy production. The Kola nuclear power station's two reactors went online in 1973 and 1974. They are the WWER (Water-Water Energetic Reactor) Soviet design of pressurised water reactors. The operational life-span of the reactors (30 years) was controversially extended in 2003. Photographed in 2004.